Children Destroyer
I don't have children, nor can I really remember being a child, but my sources tell me that they like books. Good ones. And with nice pictures. Robin Mitchell and Judith Steedman have been making books fitting precisely this description for some time but with a decidedly indie rock twist. Their books Sunny and Snowy & Chinook, in particular, both include CDs with original songs written to go along with the stories by talented Vancouver artists including p:ano, The Secret Three, Destroyer, Veda Hille, Sparrow and Miko Hoffman (of Gaze). I don't know what kids make of the music (which sounds fantastic to my adult ears) but I do know that Sunny is one of Laural's niece's favourite books. I can also tell you from experience that it would make a perfect gift for those friends of yours with kids.
Dan Bejar (Destroyer) - You Gotta Wonder, Snowy
All of the songs on the Snowy and Chinook CD have musical accompaniment by Cowbell, which is really just Brady Cranfield of the very great band, the Secret Three. It's got a kind of electro-music box-ambient-raffi feel to it (which translates in layman's terms as awesome). If I remember correctly, the artists perform their own music on Sunny, but I gave the book away as a present and don't have a copy of the CD. This particular song off of Snowy and Chinook could easily have been a track off of Destroyer's Your Blues. It sounds kind of mysterious and, as always, you can't really tell if Bejar wants you to take what he's singing seriously or not. The part where he keeps repeating, "your head gets filled with that stuff" is maybe a bit scarier than the children's music I remember, but overall the song comes across as the closest thing I can see to a pretty sincere Destroyer lullaby.
Update: I just found out that you can find quite a few more MP3's by the Secret Three, Destroyer, P:ano and others as well as info about the books at windyandfriends.com. But really, you should just buy the books, which you can do at Buy Olympia.
posted by ian at 6:24 PM
7 Comments:
Children Destroyer... sounds pretty scary. Couldn't you have entitled it, Destroyer for Children, or something? Great song though!
Ian, why don't you post during the weekend? I know you're home and I know you're reading this. You might as well just post. Or is it a principle thing, you don't work during the holidays? Whatever it is, you should kick jay in the ass! He never posts. And while I'm at it, why don't you guys have a site search? You should really get one.
I don't post on the weekend because our readership drops by about 50% on weekends. Also, I don't have any days off, so weekend is basically a meaningless concept to me. Friday through monday are actually my heaviest work days, so it's unlikely that I'll post on those days anyway.
Good call on the site search, though. I'll have to figure out how to install one.
We are doing a big group post in the next few days, though. So hopefully posting will pick up after that.
FYI, for people with kiddies, there is a live reading at Dandelion Kid's store on Commercial Drive tomorrow.
I'll be there with my little 'un!
On the subject of Destroyer (and not so much the wee ones), make sure you go and see him with the New Pornographers. The current setlist has been dictated by "John Collins' muscle memory"- they played half of "Thief" and a lot of "Streethawk" last night at the Commodore. Fucking fantastic.
Jay, when are you going to enlighten the people about our man Sixto?
xo s
thank you for posting about these books. i joyously play them on the radio but am always at a loss for where to go for more greatness from the musicians (doesn't always help that the only record of the the songs is on the actual cd.) it's like you've decoded a mystery for me!
last september (05) you posted some rare destroyer song, but the mp3 is out now. if you could email me at ifoslva@emory.edu i'd love to learn more about that song and any others you have
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